This chapter takes at its starting point that an academic scientist or scholar, regardless of discipline, must be to produce knowledge, rather than mere opinion. By virtue of his fulfilling this mission, he also supports and contributes to a form of deliberative dialog, the sine qua non for citizenship in liberal democracies, in which argument on the basis of fact and coherence, rather than rhetorical tricks and powers of persuasion, is decisive. Demands for social relevance and usefulness ought to be seen in light of this mission, rather than in terms of political utility or commercial gain. In this sense, the requirement that the university produce useful knowledge is entirely commensurable with academic freedom, provided that politicians, administrators, and business leaders recognize that they cannot determine what questions ought to be asked or how best to answer them, but leave that matter to scientists and scholars to decide.